The Indonesian Agriculture Minister Suswono says that he is not worried about Australia’s plan to stop their beef cattle export because of the cows’ torture allegations at Indonesian slaughterhouses.
“If they (Australia) want to stop, go ahead, (we) still have the option of other countries who want to export beef (to Indonesia),” Suswono said after the 2011 Archipelago Milk Memorial Day in Ungaran , Semarang regency, Central Java, last weekend.
According to him the existence of abattoirs that allegedly do not meet animal welfare rules and torture cows before slaughter need to be proven.
The cattle tortures allegation needs to be verified says the Minister
When asked about the torture video that aired in the Four Corner show in Australia, Suswono said that it needs to be verified and it will be a very valuable input to improve existing abattoirs operation.
The Minister added that even if it turns out that one or two abattoirs do such terrible thing to animals, it is certainly can not be generalized that all abattoirs are doing that as well which warrant the decision to halt the current cattle export. “The existence of these abattoirs is under the full authority of local government. Therefore, we asked local governments to actively supervise activities at the slaughterhouse for animals in accordance with established rules,” he said.
Australia’s plan would stop the export of cattle to Indonesia doesn’t concern the Minister, however, he said that he will discuss the matter with the Australia Government in the near future.
He admitted that Indonesia was one of the leading beef exporter to other countries once, including to Hong Kong around 1976, but from 1990 Indonesia had became countries that import beef from other countries. “Indonesia was first imported about 18,000 head of cattle in 1990, at the moment the number is between 500 to 600 thousand cows. However, this import is only done to cover domestic supply capacity shortage” he said.
The Indonesian Government will recalculate the capacity of domestic livestock supply, especially cattle. At the moment a livestock census is being conducted to find out how many deficiencies that need to be satisfied through imports. “If the beef consumption level of Indonesian people is around 2 kg / capita / year, we are targeting the volume of beef imports to just around 10 percent by 2014,” said Suswono.
Australia had also stopped exporting live cattle to Egypt in 2006. Cessation of exports was carried out because of fears of abuse in its delivery, but then in 2008 the export resumed.
According to Australian Bureau of Statistics, in the period from January to March 2011, Australian beef exports as many as 148,000 cows. Meanwhile, according to ABC, the value of beef exports to Indonesia worth around 300 million Australian dollars per year and will increase to 753 million Australian dollars in this fiscal year.
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be civilised please….Australia is trying to correct your mistake with some light punishment…if i were Indonesian i will feel embarrass of this n try to be better ….so leave aside the export or import matter…think about humanity….is it right to torture a defenceless COW n the cow is contributing income n meat to other n your own citizens?
yes its good to care about all things around us and in our enviroment , but i think the australian they should to see deepthly more and more and to be honest with the other people , because we have in world many things most import then to speak about cattles and what about the victimis anywhere please open your eyes and look what happened around you thanks
Disgusting how the slaughterhouses treating these animals! I have seen the footage and i cried!! It’s disgusting and so disrespectful! The whole world should stop exporting cattle to every country treating animals like this!!…No words to describe this, really!! Get a grip people!! Money is not everything!!!
Australia has a lot of halal shops inside. How do you think cows are killed at Australian halal abattoirs?